omers are happy. vo: earn points for the things you're already buying. call 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business. important republicans, republican candidates, republican newsmakers will not come on this program. they sometimes will once they've left politics but while they are still in it, nobody will talk to me and it's getting worse, not better. a year ago today, for example, i was at least still having communication with people associated with powerful republicans. a year ago today the spokesman for the speaker of the house, john boehner, was at least writing me letters to complain about the coverage of his boss. now i can't even get that. john boehner's spokesman's issue

with this show was our hypothesis. very early on in the speaker's tenure, a month into his tenure as speaker, it seem like he was not doing a great job. it started on his first day on the job. two republican members of congress accidentally did not get sworn in to officially become congressmen. they instead were at some reception and when the official swearing in started an they weren't on the house floor, they turned to a tv set broadcasting the swearing in and they raised their hands and tried to take the oath to the television. as speaker you have to make sure all your people are there before you start the swearing in, did nobody explain this? there was also the very pious reading of the constitution on the house floor to mark the start of john boehner's speakership, except they left some parts of the constitution out. some parts they left out on purpose but some they left out

because pieces of the paper in the binder they were reading from got stuck together and nobody noticed. so those parts of the constitution just got skipped and didn't get read. finger cuffs, maybe, maybe proofread it was being said right, you did make a big deal, you asked for the attention, didn't take time to get it right. every bill would have a direct constitutional citation just constitutional citation justifying the existence, remember that, new rule they announced with great fan fair. house republicans immediately decided that rule was a great thing to announce, but it wasn't necessarily worth following. they also said every bill they forward would be paid for except for the very first bill they put forward. which was not paid for. it would have added more than $100 billion to the deficit without any pay-fors at all. what's a rule, did we just announce it? never mind. this is how john boehner's tenure in congress started the how his tenure as speaker started. john boehner is bad at his job hypothesis was born. started very soon after he took office. it is now a year later. and frankly the hypothesis is

still being borne out. he's not become any better at his job. i don't mean this as a slight against mr. boehner. i have never met him. people say he's a nice guy. well respected by his colleagues, he's just not good at the job of being speaker of the house. the newest data for the john boehner is bad at his job hypothesis came today with the collapse of what was supposed to be the john boehner signature legislative accomplishment of the year. it was a big bill on transportation that is now falling apart. mr. boehner now reportedly contemplating breaking it up in pieces after it has been repeatedly delayed. from the hill "the move would be seen as a dramatic retreat for the speaker" from roll call "republican privately acknowledged the problems with the bill lie within mr. boehner's own conference." "the turmoil is the latest in a series of embarrassing errors for mr. boehner it was intended to be his signature legislative

policy proposal but he's struggled to pull enough goff votes to pass it. the beltway report is problems have nothing to do with the minority democrats in the house, it's john boehner is bad at his job, he can't get his own side to agree to his own stuff. he is bad at his job. and that is the latest data in our ongoing now year-long test of the hypothesis that the most powerful elected republican official in the country is bad at that job. and that i think is an important thing to understand about the republican party. it's not a slight against mr. boehner. it tells you, though, how they're doing at governing. the other republican in the nation who may not be as important as john boehner, is mitt romney. the party's front-runner for the presidential nomination. and today, in the hopes that mitt romney's campaign will at least write me a stern letter disagreeing with me, i hope that you would forgive me if i tell

you it's time to start testing another hypothesis. the hypothesis that mitt romney is also bad at his job. mitt romney's job, of course, is trying to get the nomination of his party so he can try to get elected president. again, i do not mean this as a slight against mr. romney. i'm just trying to assess whether or not he's good at what his job is right now. i think he might be bad at that job. this, for example, was the mitt romney's campaign's major event. this is billed as a major policy address though no new major policies were announced. this is what it looked like. the stadium is ford field, has a 65,000 seat capacity. it's where the detroit lions play. the campaign put mr. romney on the 30 yard line. they put roughly 1,200 chairs in front of him and put the candidate in the middle of an empty 65,000 seat stadium. in a normal room, this sort of group might look like a large number of people but in this room, it really didn't. there is no shame in talking to

1,200 people except when it looks like this. and you know, bad optics happen. you cannot control everything. sometimes there are visual elements of planned events that do not convey the message you are hoping to convey. for example, the baby jams his fingers into the president's mouth. this poor guy tried everything he could possibly try to keep himself awake while joe biden was awake. he's losing the battle, like a puppy going into the dish. this guy is asleep. this stuff happens. bad optics happen. a sleepy can is something you can plan for. this was an accident. booking a 65,000 seat stadium for a 1,200 person event, that is not an accident. they knew this was going to happen. there were pictures that ran in the local press before the event took place showing how bad the event was going to look. did the mitt romney campaign bail on the event?

no, they did not. to add further injury to injury, they did not even fill the seats they put there on the field in the first place. even after jamming everyone into this teeny tiny sliver of the stadium to try to make it look like there was a crowd, there were all sorts of empty folding chairs. the romney campaign swears this was not their fault. they say because of security concerns with the original location, the secret service asked them to relocate and the surface of the field was the only option at that point. but again, everybody knew way in advance this is what it was going to look like before the event started and they decided to go ahead and stick their candidate in the middle of that anyway. and this is the campaign and not the candidate personally, right? this is a campaign decision. it is the candidate's job to run the campaign that elects him. this is the sign of a badly run campaign. john mccann had some of these same problems in 2008. on the night when barack obama declared victory in the prime are yous over hillary clinton in a speech in st. paul, minnesota

in front of this crowd, this crowd of 17,000 people. this is what the republicans offered on that same night. >> good evening. from the great city of new orleans. thank you and good evening. >> senator john mccain speaking in front of a backdrop that was a crime against pantone. the mccain campaign at one point set their candidate up for a speech at the navy and marine corps stadium which has a capacity of 34,000 people. he's a distinguished navy vet but all the flags in the world could not disguise the fact that they had him speaking to 64 people in a stadium that would hold thousands. talking to 64 people, not a crime. in a room with a capacity of 64 people, that would look very impressive. it could be cacophonious. a grain of san that's stuck in your eye is the biggest thing in the world.

a grain of sand on the beach is nothing. do not put the candidate in a room that is too big. >> i can tell you, this room, we talked about this a few moments ago, was not even half full. it has started to fill in a little bit. but guys, i have to tell you, this room is still not completely full. keep in mind, we're in the city of denver. this is a large metropolitan area outside of the city limits. you have a lot of conservative republicans. mitt romney is not filling this room tonight. >> the romney campaign is not that great a campaign. but in some ways it is also the candidate. here is how mitt romney ended his speech today at the giant empty football stadium in front of all the giant empty rows of folding chairs. >> this feels good being back in michigan. you know, the trees are the right height. the streets are just right. i like the fact that most of the cars i see are detroit-made automobiles. i drive a mustang and a chevy

pickup truck. ann drives a couple of cadillacs actually. >> just a couple of cadillacs? what's with the trees thing? saying it once, not sequitur. saying it twice, dude, what are you talking about? the response to the couple of cadillac things and the list of cars at dailycoast was a liberal take. i think it was representative of response to mr. romney's remarks today. quote, who doesn't use a 20-sided dice every morning to decide which car to pull from the stable. is it an suv day or a convertible day or a two-seater convertible day? you know what i'm talking about. ann romney does drive two cadillac srx's. one at the romney's home in california and one at their home in massachusetts. the campaign has thus far declined requests to release a full inventory of the romney's vehicles. the only reason they're being asked about the full inventory of the romney's vehicles is

because mitt romney keeps talking about their full inventory of vehicles. he was at a ford dealer in tucson on wednesday before the debate and he told the ford dealer, quote, i'm a detroit guy. you know i only have domestics. i have a couple of cadillacs at two different houses. remember he's at a ford dealer. talking about his cadillacs. cadillac. the mitt romney is bad at his job hypothesis is about the campaign. but it is also about the candidate himself, too. >> i kept on looking at ebay at the '64, '65 mustangs, kept on looking at them, thinking about bidding and the next thing i know my wife got me the '95 mustang as a birthday gift. >> this was a christmas present. >> was it birthday or christmas? it was a gift from ann. it was a great gift. i got a 1962 rambler, too.

>> 10,000 bucks. $10,000 bet? >> i'm not in the betting business. >> oh, okay. >> i like being able to fire people who provide services to me. >> yes went to the company and said you can't have illegals working on our property. i'm running for office, for pete's sake. >> i'm not concerned about the very poor. >> mitt romney's job is to be a candidate and run a campaign that elects him to be the republican nominee and elects him to be president. john boehner has been bad at his job at being speaker of the house all year long. john boehner doesn't have the luxury of a campaign that could maybe compensate for how bad he personally is at his job. mitt romney does have a campaign. but at this point, they are doing this to him. they are not making it any better for him. joining us now is the national political correspondent for "the washington post." she's been traveling with the mitt romney campaign in arizona and ohio and michigan. karen, thank you for being here. nice to see you. >> thanks for having me. >> do you have insight into why

he keeps bringing up the height of the trees in michigan? i thought it was a non sequitur the first time but he keeps doing it. >> for the record, they're very nice trees. i think he's trying to give people a sense that he feels like he's at home. the car issue is interesting. one that has dogged his political career. one of the revelations in the new book about mitt romney that was written by a couple of boston globe reporters is that when he was running for governor in 2002, one of the first things that his political consultants advised him was to keep his bmw hidden. because it was not a good idea for it to be known that he was driving anything but detroit cars. so perhaps he's trying to compensate for that. >> there is obviously he's a guy who was born into wealth and privilege and has become wildly more wealthy than the wealth and privilege he was born into. most of people who run for president is really, really rich guys. that's not the weirdest thing in the world. there's been a question of

whether or not he talks about it in a way that is anything but alienating. with the cars thing, he's trying to sound like a down home guy by talking about the fact that he has american guys. in part of telling those anecdotes he talks about getting multiple cars for gifts, as presents from family members, having multiple cadillacs for his multiple mansions in places like california and massachusetts which aren't very down home republican locations. is he getting worse at this? >> i tell you, the whole problem for mitt romney, i think for a lot of this campaign is he keeps being pulled in different directions. in this case he's in michigan. he's go the to win michigan. it's his home state. don't forget, he started out a couple of years ago by writing this editorial, this op-ed in "the new york times" that was headlined "let detroit go bankrupt." i think he is talking about cars so much because he's really trying to remind people that he's not only a son of detroit but that he's a son of the car business.

>> well, with the -- the problem on the auto bailout being that he did say detroit ought to have gone bankrupt. it's been awkward to see him try to spin that as love for the auto industry. let alone something having to do with the paternity of the auto industry in his own life. do you think, you're not a partisan in this, you're a reporter, you've seen campaigns come and go over time. do you think he makes sense on the auto bailout? >> well, you know, he is trying to go back and essentially get a mulligan on this, i think. he now says that what he was recommending was, in fact, what the obama administration ended up doing anyway, which was a managed bankruptcy. but what he seems to sort of gloss over is the fact that the reason the government put capital into this, put government money behind it, was that there was no private capital available at that time,

including his old -- one of the firms that turned the government down on this was bain capital, his own firm. essentially there was nowhere but the government to get this money. >> karen, one last question for you. as you have watched sort of the mechanics of this campaign, everything from organizing events to organizing the candidate's message for the day for preparing him for debates, is there anything that is important for us to know about who is running the core of the campaign and who he's surrounded himself with over time? >> well, i think he's running it this time with a much tighter, much closer circle than he had the first time around. the more important issue here is that they're ending up in a very different primary race than the one that they expected. they did not expect to be challenged by so many -- such a succession of contenders out of right field. >> karen, national political correspondent for "the washington post." thank you for joining us. nice to have you here. >> thank you, rachel.

remember when bob mcdonnell said he wanted to be a guest on this show? he asked the radio host laura ingram to help him be a guest on this show. he hasn't returned our calls. why that might be, coming up. ok, guys-- what's next ? chocolate lemonade ? susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast speeds. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small businesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon. i wonder how she does it. that's why she's the boss. because the small business with the best technology rules. contact the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 1-800-974-6006.

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now we've done it america. now we've done it. now we've got the dutch mad at us.

>> do not euthanize. >> we know candidate in dutch is candidot. my late grandmother would smack me upside the head for that prenunsiation, i'm sure. i have been watching dutch news videos and reading translations all day. because the dutch are mad at us. they are not a people given to getting mad over nothing. they are mad at us right now because of rick santorum. he's been saying a thing on the campaign trail about the dutch, right wing watch posted video of him saying it. it got fact checked by "the washington post's" fact checker with be picked up in the dutch press and the thing rick santorum is saying about dutch people has become an issue in their national politics. this was the headline on buzzfeed yesterday. santorum royals dutch politics, which almost sounds dirty. you can tell they're mad, even if you don't speak dutch. when you get it translated by

your staff member who's dutch then it all comes into focus. rick santorum thinks he knows the netherlands, murder of the elderly on a grand scale. here's another one in the dutch. right? and in the english translation, dutch euthanasia according to santorum. here's what he said that has the dutch people so mad. i want you to pay special attention to the gasps of shock and horror coming from the crowd as rick santorum talks. >> in the netherlands people wear different bracelets if you are elderly. and the bracelet is do not euthanize me. because they have voluntary euthanasia in the netherlands. but half the people are euthanized at hospitals because they are older and sick. elderly people in the netherlands don't go to the

hospital, they go to another country. they're afraid because of budget purposes they will not come out of the hospital if they go in with sickness. >> mr. santorum goes on to say that's where we are heading now, too, as a nation now that we've had national health reform. none of the things mr. santorum said are true. none of them. we will verify that with a dutch person in just a moment. he has a leading party politician demanding that he weigh in and tell rick santorum where to go, please. if the ambassador won't do it, the government's foreign minister, the equivalent of their secretary of state, should do it. on his facebook page, this labor party politician writes, this is the translation, according to "the new york times," the dutch ambassador has no comment on the scandalous charge from santorum about our country. how is it possible? i have directed a question to the foreign minister and have called on him to take a public stance. this can't be real. one thing for americans to look at the 2012 field and say,

seriously, this can't be real. now we have the rest of the world looking at our 2012 candidates and saying, dude, this can't be real. joining us now is eric mountain. the u.s. correspondent for the dutch rtl evening news. thank you very much for being here and helping us figure this out. >> sure. >> before we talk about what this means and the big picture, for the benefit of our viewers, i hope you won't mind if i could ask you yes or no questions to clarify what mr. santorum said about the country. he said 10% of the deaths in the netherlands are a result of euthanasia. >> not true. >> 5% of all deaths in the country are people being euthanized involuntary. >> totally not true. >> elderly people in the netherlands do not go to the hospital. >> that's not true. of course they go. >> he says specifically elderly pej in the netherlands leave the country because they are afraid of dutch hospitals. >> not true. insulting.

>> the reason he says they are afraid of the hospital is that anybody going to the hospital with sickness, as he put it, in the netherlands will not come out of that hospital. if you go to the hospital with sickness, the hospital will kill you for budget purposes. >> not true. and funny but insulting at the same time. >> last one. elderly people wear specialty bracelets in the netherlands that say please don't euthanize me. >> it would be cool, right? but no. i have not seen one. >> okay. i can't apologize on behalf of rick santorum but i can't speak for him. as an american i'm sorry this is happening in our politics to the point that it's insulting. that said, do they see this -- >> the problem is if they start lying. this is a distortion of what goes on in holland. i think people are quite upset about it.

when bill o'reilly says something, it's fine. when this guy who may get the nomination of the republican party says it, people are worried. if this is the view that americans have of us. >> is it also worry that somebody running for an office as important as president could lie so blatantly and sort of get away with it? >> yes. people ask me on my twitter some days, shouldn't he have his facts straight? i say, i guess he does. but we're sort of used to being the punching bag of conservatives in the u.s. because we're like this crazy liberal country. i mean we're the most liberal country ever. we were the first with gay marriage, legalized prostitution, legalized pot. if all your viewers would start a country, it would be holland. >> then i would run for office. >> you may win. but then we understand people are upset at us. but this is something different. because it's just not true. >> in terms of -- in terms of how this is being seen in the netherlands, is it mostly being

talked about, discussed, worried over, by people who are already interested in american politics or has this crossed over so that people generally are talking about it. >> you showed a bit of an evening news program. there was also sort of entertainment type shows that talk about it. it has not really caught on because the dutch government is sort of backing off of making this a big issue. >> but there is debate over whether or not the dutch government should make a big statement over it. >> yes, the dutch government normally does. when bill o'reilly says these things or a u.s. general said the muslim enclave of se-- ever is upset. secretary of defense called your secretary of defense. so these things matter a lot to the dutch. but in this case, they are not responding because it's an election year in the u.s. and they don't want to get caught up in electoral politics. that's what they say. the opposition is saying this just goes too far. you need to say something. >> do you think there's a

possibility the dutch government will aseed to the opposition party's demands and start weighing in on this? >> i think they're hoping this will go away a bit. and the dutch government doesn't want to get into the politics of it. they're afraid this may be an issue and the conservatives will say, look, the dutch are against us now. they're trying to stay clear of this a little bit. >> if it makes you feel any better about that decision, there's a lot of things that rick santorum says that people decide not to respond to because they assume he's going to go away. that happens even among americans. >> yes, but people are saying this is a serious candidate, right, eric? i say, yes, he is. >> u.s. correspondent for the dutch rtl evening news. thank you for helping us figure this out. again, i'm sorry we're doing this. >> that's okay. >> thanks. bob mcdonnell not visiting this show apparently. ever. that's next. they agreed. [ facilitator ] take a deep breath. what do you smell? there's a freshness. actually it takes me outdoors.

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two weeks ago if you had asked me which leading republican politician in the country was most likely to come on the show for an interview, i would have told you it would be virginia governor and vice presidential aspirant bob mcdonnell. i heard him say add like to come on this show. it happened on the laura ingram radio program, roughly a month ago. listen. >> i was going back on youtube, governor and i was watching some of reagan's old debates from the '60s, late '60s, early '70s. there wasn't a place he wouldn't go. to argue the conservative

message and advocate for conservative principles. and he got a lot of grief for it but he also, he won a lot of respect. it seems to me if we have republicans out there, maybe coming up through the ranks, who are concerned about going on rachel maddow's show or concern that she's going to get the better of him or her in a sit-down, then we have real problems. we have to be able to engage with these people. doesn't mean you're going to convince her. but it means you'll probably be a stronger advocate across the board to people who don't really know what conservatism even is. >> i couldn't agree with you more, laura. that's exactly right. you see if you can get rachel to set that up for me. >> i will siene her a note, for sure. >> i love that he calls me lil' rachel. laura ingram and her producers did send me a note, which i do appreciate. we did call lil' governor mcdonnell's office to set something up. i thought we were going to get him as a guest. apparently he did not mean it.

governor mcdonnell you shouldn't have said you weren't afraid to do something if you were actually afraid to do it. already not just around the country but around the world, this one's from australia, around the world, the first phrase that pops into people's heads when they see you is transvaginal ultrasound. i cannot possibly make that worse for you, governor. you did that on your own. let's talk about it like you said you would. until then i will keep report g ing on the mess you're in. like i'm going to do in the next segment of this show. don't ab frayed, you said you'd do it, come on. [ male announcer ] we know you don't wait until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ ...that right now, you want to know where you are,

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lejuene, potentially 1 million people exposed to toxic chemicals at and around that marine base. it's an excellent documentary, hosted and narrated by lawrence o'donnell. i hope you're going to stay tuned to are that after this show tonight. that's at the top of the hour right after us. but we will be right back. of any small business credit card. the spark card earns double miles... so we really had to up our game. with spark, the boss earns double miles on every purchase, every day. that's setting the bar pretty high. owning my own business has never been more rewarding. coming through! [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? fantastic! [ man ] pro-gresso they fit! okay-y... okay??? i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit. okay is there a woman i can talk to? [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less.

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♪ wow, that's you? [ female announcer ] new intensive professional effects whitestrips. and try 3d white toothpaste and rinse. from crest. life opens up when you do. virginia governor bob mcdonnell welcome to your post vaginal probe world, a world that you have created. >> i have to ask you about this red hot story that has gotten so much ink, so many women in particular fired up. >> virginia drew national attention for the proposal. >> did they? >> my understanding is that they did. >> an abortion bill that would have mandated women get a trans-vaginal ultrasound if they were getting an abortion. >> this was not always bob mcdonnell's world. the thing everybody was clamoring to ask him about until a couple weeks ago, is how presidential he was looking. >> i could be looking at the

next running mate here. >> some people say the guy sitting across from me, would be a pretty good number two on the ticket. >> you'd be open to it? >> look, if somebody called and said you could help our country, our ticket, any of us would think about it. >> before he became the vaginal probe guy, bob mcdonnell got showered with flattering questions about his political promise prabltly everywhere he went. then the last week and a half happened. republicans in virginia were all set to make a new law requiring virginia women to undergo a vaginal probe ultrasound before the state would allow them to get an abortion. it passed both houses of the virginia legislature. governor mcdonnell already said he would sign it and then the national media noticed and everyone, including us, freaked out. made its way on to "saturday night live" last weekend. there was a big sideline the protest outside the capital in richmond on monday. there were big unsilent protests all over the capital grounds yesterday. governor mcdonnell and republicans tried to back away by claiming that they had no

idea they were requiring such an invasive procedure. they tried amending their legislation so they're still having the government force your doctor to do medical procedures to you against your will. you're still forced to have a political ultrasound mandated by the state. the new requirement would stop just short of that forced state-mandated ultrasound being forced state-mandated vaginal penetration. it's kind of hard to unring that bell. and all the trying in the world has not saved bob mcdonnell from a new political reality in which he is the vaginal ultrasound guy. he's the vaginal probe guy now. personally, ever since "the washington post" put his midcareer thesis from pat robertson's college online, i've always thought of him as the homosexuals and foreign fnicato

guy. >> you backed the bill, now you say no. why? >> i support the concept of an ultrasound requirement as part of the informal informed consent. i still support that. what i requested is simply an amendment that requires an abdominal ultrasound. >> i support the bill. i still support the bill. >> so in his first interviews in his new post-vaginal probe world, governor bob mcdonnell want tos make it clear that he still supports this measure, still supports the government mandating a medical procedure for political reasons, just not necessarily the one that goes inside your vagina. bob mcdonnell is resisting his new political identity as the vaginal probe guy. >> if you were educating yourself on this bill, did you originally not realize it would mandate an invasive procedure? normally a governor would review the hundreds and hundreds of bills when they get to your desk you're so busy advocating your

agenda you don't read every legislature's bill. we can't sell what the media focuses on. >> i don't care about ultrasounds. i'm focused on -- can we talk about something other than this? there are probably democrats who would love to be the democrat who gets to debate the vaginal probe guy about what's important to the country, right? there was a democrat on hand to do just that. mr. mcdonnell was being interviewed by politico.com right alongside about 3 inches away from, a maryland governor, democrat martin o'malley. we are used to sharp political rhetoric being thrown around in the abstract in our country. this kind of scene is pretty rare in our politics. they're 3 inches apart. governor o'malley delivering what turned out to be a screed on everything wrong with governor mcdonnell's politics while he sat right next to him, 3 inches away visibly squirmy the whole time. >> i would also dare to predict that in virginia, where they

have seen what happens when you put republicans totally in charge, they have seen their legislature take a hard right turn and that's exactly the sort of overreach that they saw in wisconsin, which has a 49th worst job creation rate, the sort of overreach they saw in ohio which has the 30th worst job creation rate. and also what they've seen in florida, which has the 45th worse job creation rate. they say vote for us, things will get better and you vote for the republicans and they take a hard right turn. outlawing gay relationships, outlawing women's rights, outlawing unions and throwing all sorts of especially wedge issues out there when what people really care about is jobs and the economy. >> governor had a hunch we'd mix it up eventually here. i better let you respond to that. i do want to get questions over on wings where i haven't gone. >> all i can say is governor o'malley is the only with unwho has social issues at the top of

his agenda. i don't. >> yes, you do, actually. nice try but you were the one who said you would sign the mandated vaginal probe bill when it was clear that that's what it was. you may have backed off that now that it's hurting you politically but people have a way of not forgetting that you were the mandated vajial probe buy. that kind of thing sticks with you. bob mcdonnell's whole career has been as a hard right forced ultrasound kind of guy. he still is. he may not want to be thought of that way anymore, who would, but actions speak louder than words, governor probe. the real question now is whether or not bob mcdonnell, the vaginal probe guy is still on the vice presidential short list. in a political party in which all of the remaining candidates for president have voiced support for so-called personhood measures that would ban all abortion and likely ban hormonal contraception as well, a party that is fighting against access to birth control, who knows, maybe this actually isn't bad

for governor bob mcdonnell. maybe the vaginal probe guy is exactly who the republican party in 2012 is looking for in a presidential running mate. joining us no you is the democratic party's former communications director, now columnist for the hill and an msnbc political analyst, karen finney. i should note that karen is a board member for pro-choice america. nice to see you. >> good to be with you, rachel. you don't look so scary to me. >> you know, the thing about bob mcdonnell is the whole ultrasound thing happened after he told laura ingram he wanted to come on this show. but even before we started calling him governor vaginal probe he still wouldn't return the calls. i think he was flat out lying. >> i think he might have been. that's not right. >> anyway. i know as democrat -- as the democrats communications director you'd never call anybody governor vaginal probe. >> i never would -- honestly, rachel, i never thought we'd be in a position to actually call

someone governor vaginal probe -- transvaginal probe. did you ever think you'd be having this conversation on your show? >> never. never in my life. not just on my show, never in my world. like really, never. >> i know. >> i've been training myself to say these things. i'm still all red but -- do you think that governor mcdonnell's prospects for being the vice presidential nominee is votely scuttled by this or do you think that actually this in some weird way, in this year in republican politics this might not be that bad? >> it's hard to tell based on the line of action that republicans have chosen to take. i mean, if you -- think about the level of activity that we've had over the last several months and weeks. i mean, essentially the republican party has now aligned itself with the vatican. and you have 98% of catholic women, you know, use contraception. the vatican can't even convince its own women in america of their policies and the republican party thinks that's the place to go? i mean, i think they're also not paying attention to the fact

that women have very much been awakened over the last several months, again, look at these republican legislatures and these anti-women bills, you to he, having to prove that you were raped in order to, you it he, use medicare or medicaid to have an abortion. redefining rape, letting women die. the level of conversation we've been having and then contraception, you know, and the reaction that we saw when susan g. komen foundation really stepped over the line. i think mcdonnell is in part, this is a culmination of all of that activity and all of women sort of recognizing and even some in the republican party that transvaginal insertion is probably over the line. maybe contraception is getting up to the line. but i think they've totally miscalculated where the american people are. >> i wonder if -- i think that it has become part of a national conversation. i think you're right, all of these things have sort of cumulatively built toward to the

point where this is not an avoidable discussion anymore. from the democratic perspective, do you think we're now at a part where resistance to the republicans abortion agenda is a national political issue for democrats? obviously it's -- this is an issue that people want to talk about. do democrats want to talk about the being the ones who are going to stand up and stop them on this? >> i think we should. i think democrats should -- we were talking about this earlier today at our board meeting. to me, i see this as -- we have an opportunity to have a conversation with americans that says, let's not -- it's not about the procedure at some point. i think that's part of what has reinvigorated and reawakened women in a lot of ways. at some point it's about fundamental liberty and personal freedom. that my government tells me i have to have some kind of probe inserted into my vagina? if that isn't government intervention, i don't know what is. even if these conversations about contraception, i mean, i wrote about this last week. in 1936 people believed that

contraception should be available. so the culture wars and the nature of the conversation is really shifting. i think you're seeing that when it comes to gay rights and marriage equality. certainly i think we've seen the backlash on contraception, i think has shown that. democrats have an opportunity to open a conversation with people that, again, is about not necessarily the procedure but about this fundamental concept of, you no he, liberty and freedom and certainly as women, we need to step up and take ownership of the fact that if we're going to be seens aequal human beings in this country, no man gets to tell me when i've been raped. >> former dnc communications director, columnist for the hill, msnbc political analyst, cairn finney, fired up and ready to go tonight. karen, this story is equally bewildering and enraging. thank you for joining us and being willing to talk about it tonight. >> good to be with you. the best new thing in the

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best new thing in the world today from fayetteville, north carolina, the home of the huge army base ft. bragg. when president obama gave his speech to mark the end of the iraq war, he gave that speech at ft. bragg. so far there's been precisely one civilian community in the united states, one city, to do something publicly to mark the end of that war. that was the great city of st. louis, missouri. on january 28th in st. louis it was just a couple of local citizensing with civilians, normal guys who ignored the politics, they paid no mind to the pentagon, they got the word out, called veterans groups and

put on a parade, a parade organized by civilians for the troops. and 100,000 people turned out in st. louis. and to date, that's it. but tomorrow there's another one. we just found out. tomorrow in fayetteville, north carolina, a local nonprofit has taken the initiative without anybody else's go-ahead or approval to organize what they're calling a convoy tomorrow in fayetteville to say welcome home, to say we think this is a big deal you served and the war has ended. we want to say thank you and we're so glad you're home. it's a parade on wheels. the idea is to mirror the last convoys that left iraq in december. they will drive an 8 mile route through fayetteville tomorrow in saturday, anybody can participate in your own truck, mini van or turn up along the route and cheer. as explained by the head of the local nonprofit that's organizing this, this is fayetteville's way of saying thank you. we have a link to their website at maddowblog.com today.

the next city to throw a parade might be tucson, arizona. local news reporting that tucson scheduled a tentative date for their end of the iraq war parade as march 31st. there's still a little work to be done before it's official. but it might happen in tucson. and then richmond, virginia, may 19th. it's also armed forces day. we're told the city of rome, georgia is apparently on board with a parade and a festival on june 16th that will include booths with resources for veterans and their families. so even though the pentagon inexplicably still wants there to be no welcome home parade in new york city, for what it's worth, the pentagon has said they're happy with st. louis and they're happy for other cities to do other things to mark the end of the war and fayetteville and rich monday, virginia, tucson and rome, georgia and st. louis, missouri are showing us all how to do it. you just do it. worry more about asking forgiveness than asking permission.